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DAB OPEN LETTER
DAB: OPEN LETTER TO THE ASEAN DIALOGUE PARTNERS
Democratic Alliance of Burma Foreign Affairs Committee
7 August 1997
1. Ms. Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State, USA
2. Mr. Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister, Australia
3. Mr. Jacques Foos, President, European Union
4. Mr. Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister, Canada
Your Excellencies,
On behalf of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Democratic Alliance
of Burma (DAB) and the oppressed peoples of Burma, I would like to thank
you, your good governments, and all peace-and-justice-loving communities
of the world for the firm support they have extended to the nearly fifty
million oppressed people of Burma, who have been persecuted and brutalized
by the military since 1962. Keeping in mind the critical human rights
situation
that exists within Burma, we ask that you maintain your efforts with ASEAN
to urge the SLORC to engage in tripartite dialogue with the Burmese
opposition.
The present ruling SLORC, which inherited its power in 1988 from the
Ne-Win led socialist dictatorship through the massacre of thousands of
innocent people, most of them school-children, has never shown sympathy
or justice to the people of Burma. The SLORC have been especially harsh in
their persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. The SLORC's suppression
of dissent has been so brutal that, despite the widespread hatred of the regime,
the people of Burma are too terrified to speak out against the authorities
for fear
of its reprisals against them.
This is the SLORC that held general elections in 1990 and later refused to
honour
its own promises to transfer power to the winning party, the NLD under the
leadership of Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the elections, many
members of the opposition have been arrested and jailed, and some have been
tortured and have died while under detention.
>From the beginning of their reign, but particularly over recent months, the
regime has disrobed and killed many Buddhist monks, and destroyed and
desecrated Christian churches as well as mosques and Islamic institutions.
In the past year, the SLORC have forcibly relocated villages all over Burma.
Every day, thousands are forced to labour on military operations and so-called
national development programs, on the construction of roads, dams, and the
notorious Yadana gas pipeline. Under the rigors of forced labour, many die,
separated from their families, and their bodies are disposed of, never to be
seen again.
The SLORC's open-market economy only benefits the SLORC officials and
their stooges, and as the kyat rate plummets, increasingly large numbers
suffer from hunger, disease, and lack of shelter. Starvation, forced labour,
and harsh military rule have driven hundreds of thousands of people out
of Burma to become refugees in Thailand, India, and Bangladesh.
We also wish to thank the UNHCR and Bangladesh authorities who helped
halt the forced repatriation of Muslim (Rohingya) refugees back to Arakan
State in Burma, where they face further persecution. The refugees' experience
of atrocities has been such that, when faced with the prospect of returning,
they mounted hunger-strikes and owed to die of starvation in the refugee
camps, rather than being driven back to the areas where their land had been
seized and their freedom of movement restricted. It is because of their
religion,
Islam, that these people have become prisoners in their own land and exiles
from it. Civilized people must realize the grave difficulties that these
and other minorities face simply trying to survive on their own soil.
In short, there are no human rights in Burma. The people's demands for
human rights and democracy in Burma express nothing other than their desire
to live as human beings, with rights allowing all to freely practice their
religion and ear a living that will allow them to survive. In demanding
their human rights, the Burmese peoples do not aspire to emulate Western
culture, but only want to experience the rights guaranteed all people under
the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The peoples of Burma have been, therefore, appealing to the world communities
to impose political and economic sanctions in order to expel the regime from
power. The longer the SLORC controls Burma, the more its peoples will
suffer. Because of this we would like to join with the NCGUB in expressing
our heartfelt thanks to Australia, Canada, the members of the European Union,
New Zealand, and the United States for their vigilance in fighting for the
restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma. We warmly welcome
the European Union's decision to suspend Burma's GSP privileges, and the
imposition by the United States of America of economic sanctions on new
investment in Burma. We welcome also the Canadian government's call
for similar sanctions, and urge them to follow through, using all power at
their disposal to press the SLORC regime for change.
It is disheartening especially for the Muslims of Burma, who are among the
worst sufferers and who have been treated as animals for 36 long years under
the military dictatorship, that Burma enjoyed observer-status in ASEAN
while a Muslim country, Indonesia, was ASEAN's chairman. It is even more
disheartening that, in the face of repeated requests by the Burmese peoples
and the international justice-loving communities, the dictatorship was
awarded full-fledged membership when Malaysia became its chairman.
On this, the eve of the anniversary of the 8-8-88 (8 August 1988) massacre
of pro-democracy demonstrators, we wish you to know that your governments'
sympathy with the oppressed peoples of Burma is fervently appreciated, and
your firm stance in support of them will always be remembered. Once again,
we thank you for your repeated calls for ASEAN's cooperation to secure
political reform in Burma, necessary to pave the way to democracy and human
rights for all our peoples. We hope you will continue to aid us with your
efforts in our long struggle.
Yours sincerely,
Kyaw Hla
Foreign Affairs Secretary, DAB;
Chairman, Muslim Liberation Organization of Burma